Trying to Get a 'Fair' Rate Adjustment from Bank

17 years ago

Hello Everyone,

I am often times more a lurker then a poster but DH & I are in need of some good advice.

Currently, we have a mortgage with TCF Bank with a fixed rate of 9.2 percent which I think is really lousy. Although, I'm still counting my blessings that it could be worse like an ARM with a much higher rate.

Anyhow, we're trying to get a rate adjustment on our house for somewhere between 6.5 to the low 7's. The bank is really giving us the run around. Back in September we had originally wanted to refinance to a lower fixed rate & lower mortgage term of 20 years (we currently are at 27 years left on the life of it) but we discovered that our original loan officer passed us off to a different woman without telling us and then this lady took it upon herself to change the term to 40 years after taking our check for the appraisal. On the third set of paperwork she then took my husband off the loan altogether which made us furious so we decided to try for a rate adjustment. Supposedly, the best they can do is 7.84 percent fixed which I think is still rather high.

We currently owe 115K on the house, it appraised for 176K and we have not been late even once on our mortgage in the last 3 years. Our combined credit score through Transunion

is 680 which is decent so I don't see what the problem is.

To date I've spoken with several people at TCF's corporate office and left a voicemail with the regional manager for the consumer loan division of the branch I've been dealing with. Is 6.5 to 7 percent too much to ask for? And are there any other tricks to negotiating with them to get them to lower the rate.

I'm going to try reaching the regional manager again in the next day or two. However, I've been told by a couple of folks from corporate, in confidence, that he may be quite nasty especially since I didn't follow through with original consumer loan manager at the bank where the loan originated. I left her two detailed voicemails but she never returned my calls.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Comments (2)

lucy
17 years ago
I am amazed at what seems to go on with banks there (the U.S.). If some of the things you describe were to take place in Canada, half the people would be in jail, the other half in poverty (or else veeery happy :-)! It's just astonishing that you were switched to another officer without your knowing, but even more incredible that she could have changed your amortization to 40 yrs(!!!) without your explicit say-so, let alone knowledge! No wonder the whole world is now in a depression, with children starving and dying, because it looks to me like no one's learned anything at all from the real estate disasters that have gone on there - everyone playing fast and loose with no regulation whatsoever - this is not a political rant for 'regulation' as such, but there have to be some checks and balances for heaven's sake, when dealing with people's money. In any case, what would happen here is that we'd make an appt. with the loans person, decide on a new plan, and (usually) pay a certain penalty for refinancing, generally in the hundreds, but I suppose it could be whatever is appropriate to the amounts involved. We could not just 'say' we wanted a lower rate, and not pay consequences (as you can with a credit card), and we cannot do it so blithely just because we wanted a lower rate without absolutely having to pay some difference, but everyone would be in agreement, papers would be signed and documented, and no one at any time would ever, ever make changes without all being in agreement. What the heck is going on down there!
dave_donhoff
17 years ago
Hi GNG,

I'm confused as hell....

Currently, we have a mortgage with TCF Bank with a fixed rate of 9.2 percent which I think is really lousy.

Why? Anyone with any mortgage rate higher than 7.5% in the last 10 years ONLY has a rate that high because they had some kind of lousy credit, bad employment history, or something else (or some combination.)

Why was 9.2% the best you qualified for... just 3 years back, in 2005?

Anyhow, we're trying to get a rate adjustment on our house for somewhere between 6.5 to the low 7's. The bank is really giving us the run around. Back in September we had originally wanted to refinance to a lower fixed rate & lower mortgage term of 20 years (we currently are at 27 years left on the life of it) but we discovered that our original loan officer passed us off to a different woman without telling us and then this lady took it upon herself to change the term to 40 years after taking our check for the appraisal.

Why? Loan officers don't make a nickel more on a 40 year term than a 30 year term....

OTOH... you might not have even qualified for the higher payments of a 30 year term... and you may have been completely turned down at the higher 30 year term payment.

Shifting you to a 40 yr term MIGHT have been your savng grace entirely...

On the third set of paperwork she then took my husband off the loan altogether which made us furious

Why????

so we decided to try for a rate adjustment.

Huh??? Why????

Supposedly, the best they can do is 7.84 percent fixed which I think is still rather high.

Why? Compared to what?

We currently owe 115K on the house, it appraised for 176K and we have not been late even once on our mortgage in the last 3 years. Our combined credit score through Transunion is 680 which is decent so I don't see what the problem is.

Me niether... but there is still so much unknown about the truth here.

To date I've spoken with several people at TCF's corporate office and left a voicemail with the regional manager for the consumer loan division of the branch I've been dealing with. Is 6.5 to 7 percent too much to ask for?

Could be, if you don't qualify.

And are there any other tricks to negotiating with them to get them to lower the rate.

No, nothing tricky to try.

I'm going to try reaching the regional manager again in the next day or two. However, I've been told by a couple of folks from corporate, in confidence, that he may be quite nasty especially since I didn't follow through with original consumer loan manager at the bank where the loan originated. I left her two detailed voicemails but she never returned my calls.

I'm wondering if there could be a connection in the fuzzy details of this post... and the responses you're getting at that bank.

Is there a reason you're not having a broker do this all for you?

Luck,
Dave Donhoff
Leverage Planner
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Trying to Get a 'Fair' Rate Adjustment from Bank

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lucy

dave_donhoff

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